sell hardware with CentOS preinstalled

[vcba79]

Hi, All

Is it legal to sell hardware with CentOS preinstalled? If it is ok, is there anything
I should notice and avoid which might cause trouble?


thanks,

[avij]

As long as you follow the trademark guidelines, sure, go ahead. We shipped around a thousand such preinstalled Dell/HP servers at my previous place of work during the time I was there, and I suppose they still do the same.

[vcba79]

I just took a look at guide line and I am confused. Use CentOS trademark for commercial promotion is unacceptable.
Sell hardware with CentOS preinstalled is acceptable. Then, how to describe the fact that hardware have CentOS
preinstalled?

This box come with CentOS preinstalled ---> this seems not acceptable according to guideline

[desertcat]

I just took a look at guide line and I am confused. Use CentOS trademark for commercial promotion is unacceptable.
Sell hardware with CentOS preinstalled is acceptable. Then, how to describe the fact that hardware have CentOS
preinstalled?

This box come with CentOS preinstalled ---> this seems not acceptable according to guideline

Here is my *guess*: It is NOT legal to SELL CentOS since it is a FREE OS, however it is LEGAL to sell the HARDWARE -- in other words you can't CHARGE for the OS, but you can for the Hardware; that the OS happens to be on the hardware is incidental.

[vcba79]

I think install CentOS for customer who buy hardware is acceptable. But the point is, CentOS is a trademark
which seems can not be used in product description. So 'this box come with CentOS preinstalled' in production
description is not acceptable.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

[avij]

At this stage I would recommend emailing centos-tm@centos.org to get an authoritative answer to this question.